The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

Author/Guide: Stuart Turton

Why a Booktrail?

1800s: Imagine you’re living in a groundhog day and you have to solve a murder….

ISBN: 978-1408889565
Genre: Fantasy/Sci Fi, Mystery

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What you need to know before your trail

Evelyn Hardcastle, the young and beautiful daughter of Blackheath house, is killed.

But Evelyn will not die just once. Until Aiden – one of the guests summoned to Blackheath for the party – can solve her murder, the day will repeat itself, over and over again. Every time ending with the fateful pistol shot.

But there’s a catch – Aiden inhabits different characters for each of these eight days so he might start off as a doctor but when he wakes the next day, he’s someone else entirely. So he sees the situations through new eyes each time .How do you keep all the facts in check and what is really true after all?

Then there’s the mystery of Evelyn herself from her time in Paris. This book is ONE BIG MYSTERY wrapped in mystery upon mystery

Locations

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Travel Guide

Welcome to Blackheath Manor

Of course this place is fictional but is clearly a huge manor house somewhere in England (where all the best manor houses are) The also fictional Abberly village is nearby and the woods are very scary leading up to the manor house:

“The wind howls, the rain has picked up and is hammering through the trees to bounce ankle high off the ground as I follow the compass.”

At the edge of the forest

I make my way though the murk unti ;i Read the edge of the forest, the trees giving way to the grounds of a sprawling Georgian manor house, its redbrick facade entombed in ivy, As far as I can tell, its abandoned. The long grave drive way leding to the front door is covered in weeds, and the rectable lawys either side of it are marshland, their flowers left to wither in the verge.

That’s how the guest first arrives…..

Then there’s the invitation to the house itself:

Celebrations will take place at Blackheath House

Owing to Blackheath’s isolation, transport to the house wil be arrange for all our guests from the nearby village of Abberly

So remote and in the middle of some woods where someone or something has made its presence felt…

Booktrailer Review

Susan: @thebooktrailer
This was one heck of a puzzle – a fine fine read. How on earth the author thought of this and managed to write it up so it made sense is beyond me. It’s the literary equivalent of a sudoku puzzle that you just can’t work out but this is a whole lot more fun trying to!
I have a headache now but it was totally worth it. It’s a genre unto its own. Mystery, sci fi, groundhog day, various POVs but in the mind of one person inhabiting several bodies….

Oh and then there’s the mystery of Evelyn herself who’s been murdered with her story from Paris…
There is something particularly chilling and mysterious about an old mansion house in the middle of nowhere and so remote you need an organised bus to take you there. You also need a notebook organiser of some sorts to keep track of things but read slowly take it in as the reward is worth it. The signposts are there if you spot them. The mystery turns out to provide more puzzles than answers too as I was left wondering and pondering over a lot of what I’d just read.
I’ve never read anything like this. Going to read it again now to prove to myself I understood what I was supposed to. A very immersive read to read slowly and savour.